Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire, and in particular to a pneumatic tire that may exhibit an excellent driving performance on icy and snowy roads while improving chunking resistance of tread blocks.
Description of the Related Art
Typical winter tires (e.g. snow tires or studless tires) comprise a tread portion provided with a plurality of sipes to increase friction against the road in order to improve driving performance on icy and snowy roads. In addition, the tread portion may comprise a tread rubber having a low hardness which offers a large ground contacting area in order to further improve the driving performance on icy and snowy roads.
Unfortunately, since the conventional tread portion deforms so that stress concentrates on a bottom of sipes when coming into contact with the road. Thus, stress concentration on the bottom of the sipes may cause a crack or chunking in which a large piece of tread rubber breaks away.